


Sink (your teeth) in me

by Viviena



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon Compliant, Established Relationship, Kinda, M/M, Post-Android Revolution (Detroit: Become Human), Xenophilia, but expect porn, ish, will update rating when I get there, xeno!Conor
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-27
Updated: 2020-02-07
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:01:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22441483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Viviena/pseuds/Viviena
Summary: Gavin wasn't ready to loose Connor and then he wasn't ready to get him back... like that.
Relationships: Connor/Gavin Reed, Hank Anderson & Connor
Comments: 8
Kudos: 73





	1. Chapter 1

“Gavin, a word.” 

Gavin scowled at his workstation screen not sure if he was in the mood to talk with Hank this early in the morning, if he should acknowledge hearing him at all. Scratch that. He was definitely _not_ in the mood.

But he did promise Connor to behave. They were kind of a two for one deal. And in all honesty Anderson wasn’t that bad of a cop after he cleaned up his act. And maybe, just maybe, it wasn’t that big of deal to add yet another person to his booming social circle. Bringing it up to a whole of four people willing to tolerate him outside working hours. Three and a tin can. But his tin can was more of a person than most fleshy ones out there. 

Still Gavin was in even sourer mood than usual. He hasn’t seen Connor in weeks. Well, they saw each other. But all of it at work, in passing, no touching, no kissing, no additional talk downs from captain for despoiling the cleaning closet. Busy with special cases Gavin was not privy to because of his _conduct_ or something. 

“Gavin,” Hank repeated, stepping closer to his desk, his voice going down, rather than up, as Gavin would expect, something off about it. “It’s about Connor.” 

Gavin swiveled in his chair to face him, scowled harder to thoroughly convey how much of a nuisance all of this was to him, interrupting the work he wasn’t focusing on anyways and got up with a grunt. Of course it was about Connor. 

“What about him?”

“Come with me,” Hank said grimly and walked to the empty break room not bothering to check if he followed.

Gavin’s hackles rose at the attitude. They already had a shovel talk after Hank couldn’t dissuade Connor from dating him a few months back. It started in the very same way and Gavin wasn’t going to live through ten most torturous minutes of his life again. He did follow, however. 

“It better not be about the handcuffs thing. I’ve already told you, it was his idea.”

Hank did not react, pacing through the small kitchen space a few times before settling at the coffee machine, looking at it intensely. He did not press any buttons, though, turning back to Gavin and finally looking him in the eye. 

“Fowler will tell everyone in a meeting at noon. But I figured you might want to hear it from me and have a moment to get yourself together.”

“What are you saying?” Gavin asked, feeling something big and dreadful just outside his grasp behind those words. Something that any member of the force or their close ones were always ready and always not ready to hear. 

“Gavin, listen to me. This case Connor was on…” 

Hank kept talking but Gavin could hardly comprehend what he was saying past the numbness spreading over his body and the high-pitched sound in his ears drowning most of the words away. Leaving only: turned bad… special investigation… Cyberlife lab… military experiments… accident. 

“Is he alive?” Gavin asked in a voice more level than he thought he was capable of, seeing that his knees were about to give out. 

Hank breathed in and looked away.

“It’s, well, it’s complicated.”

At once the numbness turned to rage.

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean? It’s a yes or no question. Is he fucking alive?”

Hank closed his eyes for a few seconds that felt to Gavin like an eternity. Then he looked back up. 

“His body took critical damage.” 

Gavin swayed so Hank hurried to add. “But he is not dead.” 

He grabbed Gavin’s shoulder and at that moment it was hard to say which one of them he was keeping upright. 

“Damn it. I don’t know how any of this works either, ok? Apparently there was this… android, like a creature thing they created and it went feral without Cyberlife’s control, or something. I don’t know exactly how or why. It’s a killing machine, Connor had no chance but he managed to transfer his consciousness into the creature’s body. But…”

“So he is alright then, right?” Gavin said, hope twisting his insides into painful knots. “Like that time, before revolution? When that deviant in interrogation room shot him. And he was back the next day.” 

“Gavin. That was before. Cyberlife have got unlimited bodies and they don’t have them anymore. They are all… free. Deviants. They walked away. Maybe spare parts but… More importantly, even if we had another body, no backup servers mean that his memories…”

“What? You said yourself. He transferred them right? Into the thing? Right?” Gavin barely noticed that he was grasping Hank’s jacket lapels but he could care less. 

“That’s the problem. It doesn’t have the capacity to have a consciousness. That’s why it did not deviate. There was no operative memory or what not, no space.” 

They both felt silent for a moment under the crushing pressure of those words.

“But at least some… at least something, must have…” Gavin choked up. 

“Some yes,” Hank said with such certainty, Gavin couldn’t help but feel a little better because of it. “We don’t know much yet. His awareness of self is very... fragmented. And communication is not easy. We sent a word to Elijah Kamski and New-Jericho, there are talks in place. You have to understand that Fowler is doing everything in his power…”

“You talked to him? To Connor, you did. I want to see him.”

Hank looked to the side again. 

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“I want to see him. I have the right.” Gavin sneered, taking a step back. Steady on his feet and not steady anywhere else. “You did.”

“And honestly, I wish I hadn’t,” Hank said, looking so haggard, Gavin had to pause. Hank lost a son once; it was not a secret that he saw Connor as one too. “He barely recognized me and when he did, all he asked for is to be put down so he won’t hurt anyone.”

Gavin shuddered but his resolve didn’t waver a bit. 

“I don’t care.”

“Don’t be an idiot.”

“I want. To see. Him.”

“Listen, kid. I know how you feel, but…”

“I need to know that he is alive,” Gavin said, desperation bleeding into his voice. Hank sighed, looking so much older than he usually did. 

They were not getting anywhere like this. Gavin frowned, his brain kicking back into gear after the first shock receded. His head clear once more, there where finally right questions and conclusions coming forth. 

“Wait. If he is dangerous, you keep him under observation. Close. He is _here_.”

Not wasting more time Gavin turned to run towards interrogation rooms, Hank cursing and following not far behind him. 

The first one was empty. The second held an interrogation process in full swing. Gavin knew it was going to be the third one anyways. It was a new room, reinforced against android suspects. It didn’t open when he pressed his hand to it. Not high enough clearance, said the information screen. 

Hank grabbed his shoulder again.

“Gavin. I’m not trying to be an asshole here, but…”

Gavin violently shrugged his hand away.

“Open the door.”

“But if we can’t get him back, that’s not how he would want you to remember him.”

“Open the god damn door, Hank!”

Hank hesitated, obviously torn. Gavin forced himself to calm down enough to squeeze a few words out. “I understand that you try to do good by me. But if you don’t open this fucking door, I swear to god, I will…”

“Fine. You stubborn ass. Jesus.” 

Hank stepped over and pressed his hand to the pad, opening the door. Not the one Gavin wanted him to. It was the door to the dimly lit operation room behind the mirror but Gavin would take that over nothing. He promptly got inside not taking chances and went straight up to the glass wall. 

There was no one at the table or in the room. He almost snapped back at Hank but right then there was a movement... in the shadows of a ceiling and then he _saw_. 

“What the hell?”

It was hard to wrap his head around it. He didn’t really imagine anything when Hank said it was a killing machine creature thing. There was no time to imagine and he didn’t really expect anything. But what really threw him off was… 

“Why… why does it have his face?”

Hank came closer and sighed. 

“They were experimenting with the most advanced model. It happened to be the last in RK series.”

Gavin had nothing to say to that. 

It probably should have been a relief, not to look at some animal or something, or a formless mass of knives and claws or however the fuck someone imagined a murder machine to be like. Somehow it really wasn’t much of a relief. Also there were claws. 

It was humanoid in shape and had Connor’s face but even though parts of it looked gutturally like flayed exposed chassis, there was some type of shiny black surface allover like a wet vinyl or latex, not at all skin-looking even from afar it was crossed allover with furrows and ridges. There was also a tail, long and ribbed, some gruesome middle between a whip and a bare human spine with a very sharp end, also black and sleek. But the strangest part was probably the movement pattern, it was fluid and dangerous, inhuman and so very _alien_. 

The thing (Connor, that was Connor, he reminded himself) was hanging huddled in the corner, somehow hooked to the walls with sharp-ending fingers and toes when they came in. But now it was unfurling before their eyes, the tail swinging snake-like, compensating the momentum when it dropped to the floor and crawled, there was no other way to describe it, closer to the wall separating them.

Only then Gavin could see Connor’s face clearly and see that it wasn’t exactly his face at all. Thin lines indicated separate parts of his faceplates, not sealed with the synth-skin, as they should be. But most strikingly the eyes; entirely pitch black, no iris no pupil to discern, glossy void in their place. 

Hank sucked in the air noisily to his right but Gavin couldn’t move and couldn’t look away. 

“He can’t see us, right?” he said, because that shouldn’t be possible, that was the whole purpose of this room. And yet the creature unerringly came to slowly stand up directly in front of him. 

“G҉̥̬̟̫a̲̟̗̼͔͟ͅͅv̸i̠n”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well damn, this part got so big I had to make a separate chapter for it, to keep the rest even. ^^'  
> It's somehow a lot about Hank?  
> Also sorry if Connor's speech format bothers you. That's the best way I've come up to show glitchy voice.

“G̣͖͇a̧v̢̦̱̯̜įn̯̺̯̼,̠̬̝̝̺̖ ̲͖̭G̹̝̦̻̫͍͚ḁ̬̼̱̙̰̳v͈i͍n͏̫̲̫,҉̘̠̞̩ ̹̠G̖͍̙͓̞̬͜a̺̮̘ṿi̤̪͖n̼͈͉̼̣ͅ, ̣͙͜G̩͈̙͍̗͈͈a̷͕̟̰ͅv̞͢i̛̬̭͍͍̠̹n̩̝̙͖”

It must have looked like a scene from a horror movie, him standing there, listening to static and his name repeated endlessly, the sound of it misshapen and distorted. But the way in which he said it was what got through more in the end. No monster sounded so miserable and full of longing. 

It wasn't a point of deciding what to do and how to feel. Nothing remotely logical about. Just a raw wave of guilt that rose in Gavin for thinking about him as some creature in the first place, even for a moment. That was Connor, his Connor. Alive. Who the fuck cares in what body and with how little marbles. Gavin would have him as a sentient coffeemaker if there was a smallest chance to get him back. 

He felt an overpowering urge to get closer, to touch and make sure.

Gavin stepped back from the glass and entered the command on the display opening the door to the interrogation room. He needed no clearance to open it from here; it was a safety feature. Gavin rushed to the door before Hank had the chance to realize what was happening and try to stop him, ignoring the string of curses at his back. 

A moment and he was inside the interrogation room, the door sealed shut behind, the mixture of dread and relief making him lean heavily on it. The decision was made, nothing he could do about it now. 

Connor was already turned to the door, his face going through sequences of emotions that he either couldn’t control or couldn’t express. 

“G̠͉͘a̭v̘̙̠͡ͅi̳n͎.̣͡ Y̬ouͅ.̛̞ ͈Ga̙̗͇v̶̤i̡̜̞͙̥n҉̭̰̪̼.͈ ̣G̕a̕vin. Yo̞u̴̹ ̣̫̣̼̱ͅc̰am͜e̞͖.͚” 

“Of course I came, you idiot,” Gavin said, stepping closer, his voice wobbling a little. “Think you can get rid of me so easily?”

Connor moved to meet him but stopped a few feet away, cocking his head to the side like he was confused. “G̱a̛v͕̤̩̰͞i̕n.̪̕ ̨͈͉N̬͡ọ̯̫t͚ ͍s̜a̫͘f͔̠͞e. ͓G̣a̵v̛͔̟i͟n̴, I'm̳̜̻ ̸̘͈͖̼̭͙n̞̱o̸̲̮t̰̥͕ ̥̞s̠̣̼ͅa̰̠fe.̩̘"

“Gavin, you stupid bastard, listen to him and stay where you are,” came Hank’s booming voice from the speakers. “Connor, is he in danger?”

Connor turned to look at the mirror and by now Gavin was sure he could somehow see through it. His movements were still so fluid and uncanny, raising the whole communist party rally worth of red flags in Gavin’s subconsciousness. Gavin refused to care. 

It took a moment for Connor to either process words or to evaluate the situation.

“Han̷k̛. I do̕n’t. I won’̢ţ. G͝avi̸n͜. I ҉won’t ̡h͠urt Gav̴in̷. ͘Gavin͜ Bu̷t, Į’m no̵t safe.”

“And I don’t care,” Gavin said and came the last two steps of the way. 

Connor was the one refusing to come closer because he was worried for him. It was clear that he struggled to function properly and yet Gavin’s safety was so important to him. 

Gavin wasn’t particularly well known for his safe life choices anyway. So he did the only thing he wanted to do after finding out that he might have lost him. Might still loose him. Moved closer and wrapped his hands around Connor, hugging him tightly. There were weird sharp and smooth surfaces under his hands instead of clothes or synth-skin but Gavin held on even tighter, closed his eyes and just breathed. 

After a few long moments Connor carefully hugged him back, still noticeably wary of his own sharp-ending fingers. 

“Yo͘u cam͟e̶. I ask̴e̸d͡… ̨a̕sked… Haņk not̵ ͏to let͞ y̧ou.”

“As if he could stop me,” Gavin huffed.

“Suppose I wasn’t trying all that hard,” Hank said, his annoyance not hidden by the static. 

Gavin smirked but then forced himself to take a step back and focus. 

“How are you feeling?”

“Stra̸n̵g̴e̴. Nǫt̡ a̴l̨l therȩ.. here͏.”

“But you know who you are and who I am? That we are in the precinct?” 

Connor looked at him unblinking, the stare made more intense by his pitch-black sclerae. 

“I k̷n̴o̴w you G̨avin. S̵o̧me̶time̛s m̸o̴re ̨but ̧n҉ot always.”

It was hard to take it any other way than Connor prioritizing memory about him almost to the detriment of his self-awareness. And as much as this knowledge was forming a warm lump in his chest, Gavin had to admit there was a lot to unpack there, not all of it healthy or sane. Something they could work on after this nightmare was over. 

“You have to know yourself, tin man. Keep that a priority, ok?” 

“I am trying. The sęnso̶ry inp̴ut takes̵ all th̵e pŗơc̕es̨sin̷g capa̛bility and the pro̵tocols are all wr̸ong̶.”

Gavin raised his eyebrows but it was Hank who voiced his thoughts. 

“Just now Connor, you talked much better, didn't you?”

Connor turned to the mirror and frowned, or his face at least did something close to that. Gavin wondered if Hank didn’t come in because he was giving them a semblance of privacy or because Connor’s appearance bothered him that much. And if Connor knew if it was the later.

“Han̵k... The̛ code re͘stor̶es̡ itself.͏ Erases my ͘input. I ̧need to foc̶us to not̶ be wip̡ed It's h̕ard̨ to know t͏hen̸..” 

“Know yourself?” Gavin asked.

“Myself͏. You. Everyt̢hing.̡ It’͘s hard all ̨t̵h͏e t̕ime̶.̢ But i̴t̡’s ͏ha̶rder̶ then. Abou̡t̨ ̧ev̴ery tw̷el̨ve ̧m̧inutes,” Connor said, sounding frustrated and genuinely human for the first time.

“I came in the worst possible moment, huh?”

“N̷o͏t ͏w͘ơrst̵. And I̸ still kn̸ȩw͠ ̷y̴o̷u̕,” Connor seemed almost puzzled at that. “F̕o̶r a m̷oment, the͝ only thi̕ng ̕I kn̵ew.”

Gavin swallowed hard. 

Hank wasn’t letting this opportunity to talk to more coherent Connor slip, though. 

“But your memory is there? The rest of it,” he asked, insistently. 

Connor shuddered, his tail swishing in one annoyed swoop.

“I don̵’t know. ̛Ha͞n҉k, I ͘d͘o͠n’t.͏ ̛Do̵n̸’̢t ҉k̼̳̮͘n̜̲o͏͈̼̼̘͇ͅw̹̺̯̭͎̼.͔.” 

“Hey-hey, it’s ok. We will figure it out,” Gavin said. “Do you need a moment? The code thing?”

Connor was slowly backing away from him and Gavin didn’t want to stress him more but he also really-really wanted to follow. 

“I don’̴t. Ha̛rd t̨o spli̷t a̵tteņt̶ion ̴an̕d k̷eep̸ ̵con̨trol͏. Doesn’͘t feel ̷sa̸fe̷.”

“Connor,” Hank said, his voice holding absolutely no inflection, his cop’s voice. “Is it me that’s a problem here?”

“Han̷k. No̵ţ y̸ou. But… knowin̶g yo̴u. ̕And̸ G̨avin͘. A͏n̡d c̸o̶ntrol. T̷ha̶t’s t̢h̨e͘ problem.͏ ͠Too̴ much. Too ̵m͏an̴y objecti̛v̵es”

“And you are on the better part of that twelve minute curve now? Does Gavin need to leave? Is it safe for him to stay there with you?”

Connor backed away even further, all the way to the wall and Gavin _hated_ seeing him so lost and distraught. 

“If you want me to leave, I will,” Gavin said, loathing the perspective. He would need to leave soon either way but he hopped for a bit longer. “Connor, baby, talk to me. What do you need?” 

Connor started lifting his hand towards him but stopped and looked at it in distress, snagging it right back. He kept looking at his hands not and Gavin when he said quietly. 

“D̶on’t̛ ̶leave.”

Gavin didn’t pause to breath in his haste to get close to Connor and hug him again, claws and all, trapped sharp against his vulnerable stomach and look how little fucks he had to give. 

“Connor,” Hank said, some emotion making it into his voice but Gavin didn’t know him that well to recognize it by sound alone. Connor shivered in his arms and Gavin could almost hear how he struggled to split his attention to listen. Should have noticed this earlier. “Would it help you, to forget? The non-essential things? Just keep what you need to know and archive the rest.”

“What do you mean?” Gavin asked, turning to the mirror automatically, knowing Hank was there. 

“Y͝es̴,” Connor said. “But I d̷o̴n't w̸a͟nt t̛o.” 

Gavin looked back at him, he lost the thread of the conversation at some point and didn’t quite get what they were talking about.

“We need you to stick to this reality, Connor” Hank said. “He and I both. No matter the cost. For a chance to get you back. If that means you forgetting me, I can deal with that. Especially if it’s only for some time. But even if…”

“Oh shit,” Gavin said, finally grasping the meaning. It did make some sense if Connor struggled to keep himself together to make it easier for him to not stretch himself too thin. But not after Connor himself asked to not leave him? “No, that’s bullshit. We can find the way. If he managed to keep it so far…” 

“G͟a̷v͏i̢n̵,” Connor said grasping his shoulders a bit too tightly, his claws digging in, almost piercing his leather jacket. “Gav̶in̨. G̨av̷i̶n̴. ͏I won’̶t̨ ̕b̕e forgettin̛g yo͘u. I ̵can̛’t. I w̡on͟’̕t̴.”

“If he is essential to you right now, keep it,” Hank said firmly. “But I am not, am I, c’mon be reasonable.”

“H̵a̶nk.̴ H͝a̕nk. Idon’̨t wan̸t ͞to. ̸Hank.”

“It’s been ten minutes since Gavin went in. He has to leave or you have to make it safe there. Are you loosing control Connor?”

“Loo̶si͝ņg̨.̵ Loosing. H͏a̸nk.”

“We will fix you up. If that’s at all possible, I promise you we will. We will get it back. Ok?”

“O̵k. I’m ̸s̶or̸ry,̕ ̢s̶͈o̩̜̩̰r͉̰̭͚͈r̵y̳,͓͓̟” Connor said and closed his eyes, freezing completely motionless in place, his hands still clutching Gavin’s shoulders. 

Gavin was at loss of words. Somehow the shitty situation spiraled even deeper all of a sudden. Just a few minutes back Connor was almost himself, stringing up complete sentences and now he was semi-coherent mess again and erasing Hank from his memory? What the hell? Or maybe not erasing but suppressing it? Somehow for his, Gavin’s, sake? Hell if he knew what was going on. 

It probably wasn’t even ten seconds but the moment dragged on forever. And then Connor opened his black eyes and looked at him. 

“Gavin.”

“How is it? Do you feel better? Do you know what was just…?”

“I have c̷omp̶r͏essed and̵ sealed all the data I do̸n’t need to ̸function ri̶ght now,” Connor said. And it was pretty obvious how much easier it was for him to talk. 

“Do you know who I am?” Hank asked, his voice a bit clipped. 

Connor looked to the mirrored wall. 

“Hank A̴nderson, Li͜eu̕tenant̵. I don’t know y̛ou̡ now but considering͘ the ͏tim͘ing o̸f ̧the question I assume I kn̵ew̨ before c̢omp̛re̡s͟s͝ion. I hope to g̷et my memo̸ri͏e̴s back and remember you soon,” Connor said in a considerate but a completely detached manner. 

Gavin was glad he couldn’t see Hank right now. He couldn’t even imagine how much this probably hurt. 

And yet when he turned back to Connor he was smiling back. It still looked weird, eyes and all. But he would take that over oblivion any day. 

"Gav̴in."

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired wholly (and unholy) by [this](https://twitter.com/CreatureXIII/status/1214627486363013120). *U*


End file.
